


Who

by areyouokaypanda



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: but you could see it as vague pieshipping, it's not meant to be pieshippy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-07
Updated: 2014-12-07
Packaged: 2018-02-28 13:57:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2735111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/areyouokaypanda/pseuds/areyouokaypanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was only after he’d finally picked up Allen’s trail that Link realized just how far the boy had integrated himself into the former inspector’s life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place while Allen’s on the run, but before the events of chapter 210. Pretty sure Link wasn’t actually on Allen’s trail for as long as I’m implying here, but my drabble, my rules.

It was only after he’d finally picked up Allen’s trail that Link realized just how far the boy had integrated himself into the former inspector’s life, though perhaps that wasn’t the best way to phrase it. Allen hadn’t chosen the situation, after all. Neither had Link, for that matter, but if either of them had changed, it was most certainly the elder of the two. It was Link who had refused to let Allen out of his sight. Who monitored his every daily activity. Granted, those things were required as a part of his assignment, as was the act of sharing meals and accompanying his charge on missions.  
  
But nowhere in his mission objective had there been any mention of sharing his sweets with the accused. Or picking up after them. Or taking the time to fix Allen’s collar whenever it inevitably flipped up on one side. The parameters of his assignment did not and never would include caring for his charge.  
  
How had things gone so awry? When had the Walker boy become not just a job, but a person? What had happened to cause Link to change so much in such a short period of time?

It was nearly maddening to see Allen Walker like this (running and fighting and caught somewhere between winning and losing to that dark presence inside) without being able to intervene. Without being able to ask questions or answer them or relieve the stress that he could see building higher and higher each and every day. He couldn’t interfere, not just yet. His new mission was one of subtlety, and it wouldn’t do to expose his presence before he’d figured out just how it was he was supposed to carry that mission out. If he even could. 

But that didn’t stop him from following. Didn’t stop him from heading off the the more determined debt collectors before they could figure out which alley the half-dressed clown had ducked into. Didn’t stop him from dropping the occasional coin in the boy’s path, leaving them to gleam under the light of flickering streetlamps where he knew Allen would see them and hoping the young exorcist would trade them for food or a bed for the night.

It wasn’t until he caught himself eyeing a particular side street one rooftop over, wondering how to deliver the loaf of bread he carried in one hand to the sleeping exorcist below without waking him that Link finally did stop, though only briefly. Just long enough for the stubborn inspector that still resided inside his mind to mull over those incensent questions again. The How and the When and the What, and it was only then that he finally came to a conclusion.

How and When and What were distractions. Details. Even the Why mattered little at this point in time. All the probing questions in the world would only boil down to one in the end.

  
Who?

  
It was the only question Link had an answer to, and for now? That would be enough.


End file.
